Porcupine in a Python’s Throat: The Ambazonia Story in West Central Africa

Fonkem Achankeng

doi:10.5771/9781793632296

Summary

Through narrating the politics and everyday life in ex-British Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia), Porcupine in a Python’s Throatmakes an invaluable contribution to understanding the choices and constraints facing both Southern Cameroons’ (Ambazonia) people, and the people of Republique du Cameroun. The volume illustrates how the people of ex-British Southern Cameroons’ (Ambazonia) seek alternatives to the cycles of repression and state terrorism turned into reprisal, retaliation and a genocidal war from 2016. This volume challenges the authorities over delimited territories and their inhabitants in states arbitrarily put together and held together by external power and control. The editor and contributors argue that the Westphalian sovereignty of authority as indivisible in postcolonial and other settings is unworkable, and does not last very long in plural societies put together and sustained with the use of force.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2023
Copyright year: 2023
ISBN-Print: 978-1-7936-3228-9
ISBN-Online: 978-1-7936-3229-6
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 296
Product type: Edited Book

1. Contents No access
2. Preface No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 4
1. Reference No access
1. Background No access
2. 1. January 1952 No access
  2. June 1957 No access
  3. June 27, 1958 No access
  4. February 25, 1959 No access
  5. March 13, 1959 No access
  6. August 10–11, 1959 No access
  7. October 1959 No access
  8. October 7, 1959 No access
  9. October 16, 1959 No access
  10. January 1960 No access
  11. June 1960 No access
  12. June 1960 No access
  13. June 1960 No access
  14. July 15–17, 1960 No access
  15. August 1960 No access
  16. Early October 1960 No access
  17. October 10–13, 1960 No access
  18. December 1–3, 1960 No access
  19. December 24, 1960 No access
  20. January 27, 1961 No access
  21. February 11, 1961 No access
  22. March 1961 No access
  23. April 11, 1961 No access
  24. April 13, 1961 No access
  25. April 15, 1961 No access
  26. April 17, 1961 No access
  27. April 18, 1961 No access
  28. April 20, 1961 No access
  29. April 21, 1961 No access
  30. The Adoption of Resolution 1608 (XV) of April 21, 1961 No access
3. 1. Content of the Resolution No access
4. 1. “Joining” No access
  2. “Independence” No access
5. Salient Developments after Adoption of the Resolution No access
6. 1. July 17–21, 1961 No access
  2. September 1, 1961 No access
  3. September 25, 1961 No access
  4. September 27, 1961 No access
  5. September 30, 1961 No access
  6. September 30, 1961 No access
7. Conclusion No access
1. First Line of Argument: No Historical Basis for Cameroun’s Presence No access
2. Second Line of Argument: No Political Basis for Cameroun’s Presence No access
3. Third Line of Argument: No Legal Basis for Cameroun’s Presence No access
4. Closing Statement No access
5. Note No access
1. 1. Representation No access
2. Discourse Analysis No access
3. David and Goliath: The Unfolding National Conflict No access
4. A Quick Glance at History No access
5. Toward Colonial Representation and Discourses No access
6. Representation, Discourse, and the People of Southern Cameroons No access
7. Stanching the Hemorrhage No access
8. Conclusion No access
9. References No access
Chapter 5: The Anglophone Problem in Cameroon: The Real and Disturbing Dimensions No access Pages 89 - 92
1. 1. Self-Determination and Sovereignty No access
2. 1. Political Development No access
3. 1. Founding Philosophy No access
  2. 1. Equitable Collective Prosperity No access
    2. Visionary Transformative Leadership No access
  3. 1. Right to Development Governance No access
    2. Constitutional Dispensation No access
    3. Minimum Threshold in Living Standards No access
4. Conclusion No access
5. Note No access
6. References No access
1. Expression of Outrage and Bitterness No access
2. Taking the Past Along No access
3. The People’s Activism at Home and Abroad No access
4. Perceptions of the Statehood Struggle No access
5. Exiles with Different Commitments No access
6. Freedom Urge among Southern Cameroons’ People No access
7. Conclusion No access
8. References No access
Chapter 8: Daily Eaten Alive: A Gruesome Genocide by a Military Occupation of the Southern Cameroons No access Pages 137 - 142
1. 1. Scenario 1 No access
  2. Scenario 2 No access
  3. Scenario 3 No access
2. 1. Scenario 4 No access
3. 1. Scenario 5 No access
  2. Scenario 6 No access
4. The Humanitarians No access
5. The Keyboard Soldiers: Women, (Social) Media, and the Conflict in the Southern Cameroons No access
6. Engagement with Diplomatic Community No access
7. Conclusion No access
8. Note No access
9. References No access
1. 1. Typologies and Dynamics of Decentralization No access
2. 1. The Inexplicable Gap, 1996–2019 No access
3. 1. Is Decentralization a Solution to the Southern Cameroons’ Conflict? Critical Perspectives No access
  2. Reinventing the Wheel of Centralization No access
  3. The Vagueness of the Decentralization Reform No access
4. What’s the Way Forward? No access
5. Note No access
1. Introduction No access
2. What Is the Ambazonia Conflict All About? No access
3. Moronic Independence without Sovereignty No access
4. Violation of UN Requirement for a Union Treaty No access
5. Imposition of an Unratified Federal Constitution No access
6. Fraudulent Referendum for “Unitary” State No access
7. Cameroon’s Fraud and Oppression No access
8. Cameroon’s Strategy of Distorting History No access
9. Nailing It Down: Not Rooted in Marginalization, but a Territorial Conflict No access
10. Conflict Cannot Be Resolved without Addressing the Territorial Cause No access
11. Is the West Interested in Justice? No access
12. Why Is the West Calling for Dialogue Instead of Referendum? No access
13. What Is the Interest of the West? No access
14. What the West Must Do If It Wants to Solve the Ambazonia Conflict No access
1. Reactions of the UN to the War in Southern Cameroons No access
2. Reactions of the Vatican to the War in Southern Cameroons No access
3. Reactions of the African Union to the War in Southern Cameroons No access
4. Reactions by the United States to the War in Southern Cameroons No access
5. Reactions of the European Union to the War in Southern Cameroons No access
6. The Elusive Quest for Peace and Security in Cameroon No access
7. Ripe for Settlement No access
8. Finding a Face-Saving Strategy No access
9. Addressing the Confidence Deficit No access
10. 1. Conduct A Public Opinion Survey To Find Out Peoples’ Preferences On Whether the War Should End or Continue. No access
  2. Identify Countries That Have Leverage on Both Sides and Have Them Put Pressure on Their Clients to Go in for a Negotiated Peace Settlement No access
  3. Secure Prior Commitment of Good Faith and Enforcement Guarantees No access
  4. Bring the US Institute of Peace on Board as a Consultant/Facilitator No access
  5. Identify a Mediation Team That Has the Trust by Both Sides No access
  6. Amnesty and Prisoner Release No access
  7. Guarantees of Postwar Economic Opportunities for Combatants No access
11. Conclusion and Summary Remarks No access
12. Notes No access
13. References No access
1. The Inability to Uphold the “Never Again” Campaign No access
2. 1. Defining Anger No access
  2. Violent Resistance as a Duty? No access
3. 1. The Trouble with Cameroon No access
4. Aborted Demands for Political Decentralization, Equity, and Fairness in Governance No access
5. The Responsibility to Protect and the International Media Silence No access
6. Anger, Resistance, and Self-Defense No access
7. Self-Defense, States’ Silence, and the Security Council: Examining Acquiescence Concerns and UN Article 51 Reports No access
8. Self-Defense and Defense of Vulnerable Ambazonian Others No access
9. Self-Defense and the UN Charter No access
10. Conclusion No access
11. Note No access
12. References No access
1. The Fight against Terrorism in Cameroon No access
2. 1. 1. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 1984 No access
3. Substantive Norms under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights No access
4. Conclusion No access
5. References No access
1. Note No access
Appendix A No access Pages 273 - 284
Appendix B No access Pages 285 - 288
Index No access Pages 289 - 292
About the Contributors No access Pages 293 - 296